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Exhibitions are an excellent way to promote a company’s brand and services. A display’s graphic design will be the first branded item trade show guests see while walking the convention hall floor. When planning for a trade show, marketing teams must place a priority on instantly drawing attention on the show floor and building interest around their brands. A well-designed booth should be simplistic and clean, but also unique and creative. Talented graphic designers understand that less is good. Trade show signage walls resemble free-standing billboard stands. Like traditional billboard marketing campaigns, brand marketers should create booth design layouts that tell a story without words.

Fundamentals of Effective Trade Show Booth Design

Show off your brand

Your booth must boldly display your company name and brand. Customers cannot walk away from your booth not knowing who you are and what goods and services you provide.

Grab a hold of your audience

Know your audience and develop a campaign to grab their attention with eye-catching pictures and video to engage them.

Lead visitors to your exhibit

Don’t rely solely on face-to-face interaction for educating visitors, since not all visitors will have an opportunity to speak with sales staff. The products need to be prominently featured and visitors should be able to find answers to their questions easily.

Define your goals

Firthermore, the design of a trade show booth should make it clear why a company has chosen to advertise to a specific audience. Whether it is to launch a new product or cultivate new clients, visitors appreciate a transparent and pleasant experience with show staff.

Branded Trade Show Giveaways

Most of all, promotional products that are popular with the expo audience can help increase repeat orders from your customers up to 16%. While most people think of promotional trade show giveaway items as pens, water bottles, and key chains, they can be a wide variety of unique items. A few suggestions from the Indy Displays team are virtual reality glasses, sunglasses, luggage totes, antibacterial travel packs, LED keychain lights, bottle openers, smartphone cases and well-fitting quality shirts. Customers that receive creative useful giveaway products as personal gifts are much more likely to refer others to your company, compared to those who don’t have a tangible reminder.

Trade Show Booth First Impressions

Brand imagery affects consumer opinion. Therefore, it is one thing that should never be left to chance in planning. Most of all, make your display booth graphic murals stand out.

The display booth layout and visual branding will reflect upon your business and exhibitor staff. Therefore, an exhibit staff with a sloppy appearance and dated exhibition stand design will make your company look less desirable to prospective leads.

According to the famous 3-second rule, your booth design needs to engage and attract passers-by traffic in under 3 seconds. Otherwise, they’ll quickly turn their attention to another company highlighting their brand properly and staffing the booth space with knowledgeable marketers.

Make sure the design theme and booth structure properly represents industry, brand, and company mission.

Know your target consumer demographics and develop a promotional campaign that caters to them and creates organic interaction.

Importance of Booth Space

The convention floor location of a trade show display is important, no matter what size the event venue. In addition, your company must refrain from employing an incompetent event team. It’s important to book early and secure an available premium space. Because spaces with high foot traffic go quickly, timing is of the essence, regardless of common excuses made for last minute decision making.

Consider LED modular edge-lit light box display solutions to turn your booth design into an eco-friendly backlit trade show wall that requires far less electrical power. Custom modular displays are also reusable / resizable hardware systems, as a result offering companies versatility and unique ways to save on high shipping and drayage fees. Exhibitors looking to purchase a completely eco-friendly “green” exhibit solution, have the option to select recycled fabric and trade show LED lights that produce optimal HD quality printed images and colors illuminated by next generation light technology with up to 50,000 hours of shelf life!

The advantages of occupying an island booth open space are worth the additional investment. Island exhibit floor spaces are located in the middle of the convention hall floor, making island booth rental locations the busiest areas on the exhibit floor for guest attendee foot traffic. As a result, island exhibit structures provide visibility and booth access from all 4 isle facing sides. Unlike standard inline exhibit spaces, open island center floor rental spaces typically do not have height trade show display stand height restrictions. Therefore, this allows exhibitors the opportunity to utilize additional graphic branding space unavailable to their inline exhibiting competitors.

Booth Etiquette Tips

Dynamic exhibition stand design is essential for attracting visitors and trade show staff members are the ultimate company representatives. As a result, exhibitor staffs should always demonstrate the following professional characteristics:

Gamification: The excitement of games and contests create memorable group experiences. The entertainment can be competitive, like industry related trivia or video games. However, they can also be passive, such as a traditional prize wheel.

Virtual Reality: Augmented reality delivers endless education possibilities, as companies can deliver experiences to visitors that they would otherwise never have the chance to experience in a trade show setting.

Apps: Smartphone applications take advantage of the fact that every single trade show attendee has the technology in their pocket. In addition, apps can be used to track visitor behavior, gather contact information, or compile social media attention.

3-D Printing: Custom concepts can become a reality quickly and inexpensively with 3-D printing machinery.

It’s that time of year when exhibit marketing teams are starting to plan and budget for 2018. Whether this means a complete overhaul of display inventory or updating elements, event teams should consider eye-catching innovative products that will grab attendees’ attention. Below are some of the best ways that companies can update their trade show booth in 2018!

Digital Signage

Digital signage offers companies the ability to create an interactive experience at trade shows. Not only will brand messaging come to life, but digital signage allows customization, such as touch screen displays, video capabilities and the ability to utilize QR codes. These capabilities provide an opportunity for marketing teams to seamlessly integrate data collection into a trade show booth design. The information gathered from attendees helps to better qualify warm leads for post-show follow-up. Companies can include videos showcasing how new products or prototypes work, making it easier for the audience to conceptualize innovations. Digital signage can also be utilized for in-office sales presentations between trade shows.

Backlit Displays and Accessories

Backlit displays and LED light accessories are proving to be a continuing exhibit design trend. LED illuminated portable displays provide a bright and inviting experience for attendees, compared to dark, drab non-backlit displays. Backlit accessories, such as light box counters and center towers, pair perfectly with backlit trade show displays for a cohesive exhibit style. With the correct usage of light, a company can illuminate certain aspects of their sign structure that will attract their target audiences. Not only does backlighting take display graphics to the next level, it also makes the brand’s imagery brighter and more recognizable. An excellent way of utilizing backlit displays is to highlight high resolution creative campaign images on a large scale. Large LED backlit sign walls create brand visibility from afar, attracting attention from every angle on the exhibition floor.

Charging Stations

Charging stations are strategic trade show accessories that will attract traffic, while also keeping potential clients at a booth space for an extended period of time. They offer the audience a service that is in high demand at trade shows. While attendees wait for their phones to charge, the sales staff has the opportunity to engage in meaningful selling conversations. A short attention span is common at trade shows. Therefore, charging stations are paramount to retaining the interest of booth visitors. This provides a mutually beneficial relationship for both the company and the audience. Advertising event charging capability for iPhone users would perform well for a company that specializes in iPhone compatible technology and apps.

Furniture and Flooring

A great way to create a real-life experience for the audience is to implement lounge furniture and attractive expo flooring into a trade show booth. If space allows, this can turn selling a product into creating relationships with customers that impact buying decisions. Creating a fun and welcoming environment for attendees also allows them to escape the madness of a trade show. Spaces can be created to align with the company’s brand and mood. For example, a start-up technology company could create a mood of inspiration and innovation by including modern furniture in a clean and open space. In contrast, a company specializing in outdoor technology equipment would provide a space that is warm and inviting by including wooden furniture and darker colors.

Interactive Technology

Interactive technology can be extremely helpful in a trade show setting. Not only can it keep the audience occupied if the staff is busy, but it also helps facilitate traffic flow to avoid a chance of awkwardness. Virtual reality is one great way of utilizing cutting-edge technology. Virtual reality, whether presented as games or product demos, can virtually demonstrate a company’s product and allow the audience to walk away with a memorable experience. Plus, they add a fun element to an exhibit booth that will delight the audience. By including a virtual reality headset or game, a company can increase their booth traffic and become a more memorable.

Social Media

While some of these trade show display ideas are trending in the industry, they will not be fleeting. In recent years, social media integration has been trending. But, it’s important to focus on the human aspect that trade shows and events offer. Social media fosters engagement with consumers when face-to-face communication isn’t possible, but exhibitions are the time to prioritize offline engagement. A good way to utilize social media is to create posts that drive the audience to your booth. For example, including location, photos, and even the possibility of awards for visiting your trade show space. These posts will entice the audience at the venue to come to the booth and check out the company.

Trade shows are about creating an experience for the audience and getting exposure for the company. The audience should walk out of the trade show with a new vision and excitement for the companies they experienced. Whether the eye-catching element be a trendy SEG light box wall design, modern event booth furniture, or integrating trade show drone technology, these booth boosters for 2018 will attract the audience to the booth and create a successful trade show experience.

Fraudulent chargeback claims have unfortunately become an occasional cost of doing business online in recent years. Large e-commerce corporations have started to factor these unethical claims into yearly costs similar to the way brick-and-mortar stores account for the possibility of theft (also known as “shrink”) while budget forecasting. However, business owners with smaller operations can be devastated by chargeback fraud. Dishonest customers can essentially capitalize on the support of their credit card provider in order to steal thousands.

The sheer amount of money wrongfully stolen from business entities through “friendly fraud”, is shocking. The e-commerce sector is the easiest target, and therefore hit the hardest. In 2016, $4.2 billion in revenue was lost due to unethical chargebacks. In fact, 71% of all credit card chargebacks filed in 2016 were classified as fraudulent e-commerce claims.

Consumer Advocacy from Credit Card Companies

A major contributing factor to this growing scam is the advocacy from credit card companies in favor of their card-carrying customers. Credit companies freeze funds associated with the disputed transactions once a claim is filed. After the funds have been frozen, the retailers are given the opportunity to plead their case online. This includes submitting invoices, shipment tracking records, product photos, email communication with the buyer, and any additional evidence. However, the credit card companies have final say. The priority is to protect their customer, the cardholder, and not the independent merchant.

Correspondingly, this has created a devastatingly large window of opportunity for consumers to take advantage of e-commerce companies with little to no consequence. In fact, after the credit card provider decides in the buyer’s favor, the funds are returned to the unethical customer without ever requiring the buyer to send back the product that’s now officially unpaid for. It seems unfathomable, but at the end of the day the merchant often loses on both ends, the funds and merchandise that’s now fallen victim to what has been coined “Friendly Fraud”.

Repetition of Fraudulent Behavior

Upon discovering this friendly fraud loophole, consumers are highly likely to continue the behavior. Half of all cardholders that successfully commit chargeback fraud will do so again within a mere 90 days. This reality is putting online business owners in a difficult position financially. This results in deterring the growth of small businesses due to the unpredictable risk.

Even outstanding customer service doesn’t provide effective protection. A dismal 14% of customers attempt to communicate with sellers prior to filing a chargeback claim. Online transactions provide a veil for criminal activity, as customers can win a fraudulent claim without ever communicating with the seller. Unsurprisingly, 58% of consumers file their chargeback claims without ever contacting the merchant in question.

Understanding Reason Codes

When filing a claim, cardholders select from a list of reason codes that describe the type of chargeback. Over half of all claims are filed with the most general reason code, “Fraud/No Authorization”. This specific code can be interpreted in a variety of ways, ambiguously placing illicit practices onto the merchant that even the most meticulous documentation submission cannot disprove. The second and third most used reason codes, “Products or Services” and “Cancel Recurring Billing” respectively, reflect more specific transaction aspects that are more easily verified by both parties.

Preventing Chargeback Fraud

Friendly fraud can happen to any merchant, but there are steps to take to protect profits against this corrupt activity. First, sellers should develop an understanding of all possible reason codes. Then, accordingly, design business processes that avoid practices susceptible to chargeback fraud. Obtaining clear, official authorizations when finalizing orders and handling payment defends against any miscommunications on customer expectations.

In addition, merchants must focus on providing high quality customer service to address and remedy any issues swiftly and fairly. This includes ensuring consumers are aware of return and refund policies. Many times, consumers will call their bank or card company when they see an unfamiliar charge on their statement. Therefore, retailers are responsible for ensuring their company’s charge is accurately depicted on transaction statements to avoid any confusion. Lastly, e-commerce companies must be diligent in keeping detailed records to provide in the event of a fraudulent claim.

In the case of many credit card chargeback claims, the customer is not always right. When businesses are unprepared to dispute dishonest claims, they are often blindsided by “friendly fraud”. This unawareness can possibly result in the loss of hundreds or thousands of dollars in revenue. As more consumers become aware of the opportunity to scam businesses through friendly fraud it is essential for e-commerce business owners to remain diligent on protecting themselves on every transaction. We hope this IndyDisplays.com article and infographic will help spread the word about Friendly Fraud and helps educate e-commerce retailers so they are more equipped to prevent credit card chargebacks before they happen!